The stuff of love: taxidermist passionate about wildlife

Jim Cook had a grand plan when he opened Midwest Taxidermy in 1975. He would hunt and fish whenever he wanted in the summer and fall, and in the winter when it was cold, he would work.

‘Well, I found out real quick that when deer season opens, I’m here,” Cook said. “I don’t get to go deer hunting; I’m stuck.”

Hunters bring in their deer at a rapid rate, and they need to be skinned and frozen quickly.

During the last deer hunting season, he managed to slip out of the shop and into the woods once – for an hour. He’s still got four un-mounted deer left in the freezer from the 108 he received last season.

“I was naïve when I started this business,” Cook said.

The walls of the taxidermy shop in Cook’s house on Clark Lane demonstrate both his handiwork and his love for hunting.

They’re lined with mounts of duck, pheasant, deer and elk. A lifelike antelope, with its legs tucked under its body in full-sprint, stands on one side. A wild turkey is perched near the ceiling on the other.

He points out a stuffed coyote near the door.

“Most mounts, you just see a coyote standing looking ahead,” Cook said. “But a coyote will very commonly run, and then turn around and look at you, just like that, just like that. So I ordered the kit for the coyote, and just turned the head around backwards.”

When he does get a kill himself, he visualizes how he wants the animal to look when it’s mounted.

“When I killed my last elk, I just stood there for the longest time making mental notes, because I don’t see elk every day,” Cook said. “My buddy was there, and said, ‘Well aren’t we going to field dress it?’ And I said, ‘Just be patient, I’m mounting this elk right now.'”

Cook said he began hunting as a child and once tried to mount a starling. “It looked like crap,” he said.

It was the beauty of waterfowl that led him to become a professional taxidermist.

“It just really bothered me to shoot a real pretty duck and to just throw the feathers away,” he said. “So I got interested in it, and thought I’d try to save some them. I figured out real quick I wasn’t doing a very good job. But I kept after it, and, after a while, I finally got to where I was pretty confident.”

The self-taught taxidermist pulled out a dusty and worn duck he mounted in 1967, the first one that turned out, he said. Before he knew it, people he didn’t even know were calling him and asking him to mount their animals. His hobby quickly turned into a job.

“Pretty soon I was doing it part-time, more than part-time,” he said. “After a full-time job working eight hours a day and coming home and working weekends and evenings trying to mount stuff, why, there was very little time for me to go hunting and do the things I wanted to do. I figured I needed to make up my mind, either do it full-time or just quit doing it.”

He decided to open up his store in Columbia 34 years ago, back when there was only one taxidermist in the phonebook. Now, there are over 20, he said. But he still stays busy every year.

“In 1978, I went to Alaska, and up until that time I hadn’t been totally busy every single day,” Cook said.  “When I got back, my wife had taken a couple things in. And since that time, I have never been caught up.”

People get excited after a successful hunt, he said, and bring deer carcasses to him at all hours, even when his closed sign is up. He’s had weeks of working until 2 a.m. only to be woken by a 6 a.m. customer hoping to drop off a kill before heading to work. He’s even had his Christmas dinner interrupted.

Despite his busy schedule and the drain on his hunting hours, he’s enjoyed his work. He’s found it rewarding, both to recreate the beauty of animals in the wild and to make his customers happy.

“It really makes you feel good,” Cook said, “when you get that thank you note in the mail or when someone’s just pumping your hand up and down.”